Grantham 2 draw match away at Nomads

In the latest match of the Nottinghamshire League, Grantham 2 drew away against Nomads 1. With only the top board left to finish, Grantham were a point down. In a tense bishop endgame, Ivan David's extra pawn finally proved fatal after sacrificing his own bishop in the quickplay finish. He was then helped by his opponent who allowed Ivan's resulting queen to fork king and bishop. It was a fortunate end as Ivan admitted he thought of resigning on move 10 after making a huge mistake in the opening which simply blundered a pawn for nothing. However, his battling performance sealed the drawn match. Elsewhere, there was a win for Trevor Palmer and Ben Mason drew with Chris Holt and Rona Allgood losing their games.

Local players in action in National Chess League

A number of Grantham players were involved in the latest round of the 4NCL (Four Nations Chess League)  playing for Pandora's Box Grantham in Division 1 at the weekend.


Unfortunately, on Saturday the team came up against the very strong 'Barbican 4NCL 1' team headed by Grandmasters Jonathan Parker and ex-Grantham player (and now also Grandmaster) Matthew Turner. Outgraded on every board, and with a titled player on each of the Barbican boards, Pandora's Box succumbed to an 8-0 whitewash.


On Sunday, the team played 'Warwickshire Select 1'. The boards were more evenly matched but Grantham lost 3-5 with Nigel Birtwistle being the only local player to draw his game.


More information on the 4NCL can be found at http://www.4ncl.co.uk/

Grantham 2 suffer defeat at Ashfield

Grantham 2 suffered a 4 -1 defeat at top of the table Ashfield 2. Decisive blunders decided the top two boards with Ivan David and Chris Holt. Ivan was doing well against Steve Burke's Dutch defence but made a blunder in time trouble. Chris Holt grabbed a pawn after a draw offer from his opponent and was made to suffer. He had almost escaped two pawns ahead when a blunder lead to checkmate. Ben Mason had a good draw against R. Taylor but Mrs Rona Allgood was always struggling against A Robinson and was ground down. After a late withdrawal, Chris 'supersub' Cumbers stepped into the breach and had a good draw against S. Cranmer. 

Grantham I beat Long Eaton I

For their first fixture of 2011, Grantham hosted Long Eaton in the 1st Division of the Nottinghamshire League. With Long Eaton defaulting Board 5, it was always going to be an uphill struggle for the visitors and so it proved. Wins from Nick Payne, Claudio Mangione and Nigel Birtwistle sealed a 4:0 lead. 


The last game to finish proved to be the most exciting with top board Paul Cumbers unleashing a wild McCutcheon variation of the French Defence. More information on this variation may be found at the Chessgames website : http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessopening?eco=C12. Paul has had some good wins with this variation, including at the British Championships, and his opponent soon had a hugely complicated position on the board with Paul playing a sub-variation attributed to the Russian Grandmaster Alexander Morozevich. With both players well behind on time, Paul spurned a draw offer but, unfortunately, lost in the ensuing time scramble. The final score was settled at 4:1 in Grantham's favour.